Melbeta, Nebraska
13 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1898 and the latest in 1985. It stands in Castle Rock precinct. It lies in ZIP code area 69355. It stands on Fairfield Seep. The Survey maps it on the Minatare quadrangle. 108 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 3,829 feet above sea level.
Population over time
2 figuresMelbeta fell from 112 to 108 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 112 | |
| 2020 | 108 | -4 (-4%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
5 surveys from 13 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1898 USGS Scotts Bluff quadrangle1:125000, 5 printings
- 1954 USGS Scottsbluff quadrangle1:250000, 3 printings
- 1958 USGS Scottsbluff quadrangle1:250000, 2 printings
- 1965 USGS Minatare quadrangle1:24000
- 1985 USGS Scottsbluff quadrangle1:100000, 2 printings
Fires near this place
79 since 2007Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 79 fires within 5 miles of Melbeta between 2007 and 2020, burning about 877 acres in total. None started naturally. 3 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Debris and open burning | 53 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 8 |
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 8 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 3 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 3 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 1 |
| Fireworks | 1 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 1 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 1 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 September 2019 | Arson/incendiarism | 15 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 13 September 2018 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 10 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 12 September 2010 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 8 August 2009 | Debris and open burning | 5.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 26 August 2010 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 25 August 2007 | Debris and open burning | under an acre | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 11 August 2007 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
| 9 July 2020 | Debris and open burning | 1.0 acres | Nebraska Forest Service | not named |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Storms near this place
31 since 1996Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Melbeta in 31 storm reports between 1996 and 2025: 17 hail, 11 thunderstorm wind, 2 flash flood, 1 heavy rain. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 1999 | Hail | Melbeta | $25,000 | no account filed |
| June 2010 | Thunderstorm Wind | Melbeta | $9,000 | Sheet metal blown around, roof damage, and downed trees. |
| July 2025 | Hail | Melbeta | - | Estimated 65 mph wind gust at time of quarter size hail. |
| July 2025 | Flash Flood | Melbeta | - | Spotter reports water running over Highway 92. |
| July 2025 | Thunderstorm Wind | Melbeta | - | Spotter reports 75 MPH wind gust with Kestrel wind meter. |
| June 2024 | Thunderstorm Wind | Melbeta | - | A wind gust to 70 MPH was measured 2 miles ESE of Melbeta. |
| July 2023 | Hail | Melbeta | - | Quarter sized hail reported 1 mile southwest of Melbeta. |
| June 2022 | Thunderstorm Wind | Melbeta | - | Four wooden power poles snapped and irrigation pivot flipped from outflow winds. |
| July 2020 | Hail | Melbeta | - | Golf ball sized hail 6 miles south of Highway 92 on Wrights Gap Road. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Melbeta | - | Reports of windows broken out of home. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Melbeta | - | Reported wind gust from a Davis System. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Melbeta | - | Pivot damage from wind gusts reported south of Melbeta. |
| June 2020 | Thunderstorm Wind | Melbeta | - | Several small outbuildings blown over, metal roofs stripped off, large trees blown over, and pivots flipped over in the Melbeta area. |
| August 2019 | Thunderstorm Wind | Melbeta | - | Multiple trees were knocked down from thunderstorm winds blocking roadway access along several area roads. |
| May 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Melbeta | - | Two utility poles were knocked over along County Road A. |
| July 2018 | Thunderstorm Wind | Melbeta | - | Estimated wind gusts of 60 to 65 mph downed large tree limbs at Melbeta. |
| June 2017 | Hail | Melbeta | - | Quarter to half dollar size hail covered the ground at Melbeta. |
| July 2015 | Hail | Melbeta | - | Quarter size hail was observed two miles south of Melbeta. A corn field was destroyed by the large hail. |
| June 2014 | Flash Flood | Melbeta | - | Two homes just west of Wright's Gap Road were flooded and surrounded by high water. |
| July 2014 | Hail | Melbeta | - | Quarter size hail covered half the ground. The hail broke windows of a residence. |
| September 2014 | Heavy Rain | Melbeta | - | Four and eight-tenths inches of rain was reported. |
| June 1999 | Hail | Melbeta | - | 1 inch hail reported 3 miles south of Melbeta, NE |
| August 2024 | Hail | Melbeta | - | no account filed |
| June 2019 | Hail | Melbeta | - | no account filed |
| August 2019 | Hail | Melbeta | - | no account filed |
| August 2019 | Hail | Melbeta | - | no account filed |
| September 2010 | Hail | Melbeta | - | no account filed |
| September 2010 | Hail | Melbeta | - | no account filed |
| September 1999 | Hail | Melbeta | - | no account filed |
| September 1999 | Hail | Melbeta | - | no account filed |
| May 1996 | Hail | Melbeta | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Melbeta | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2661809 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 831196. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.




